UNC disputes report saying teachers it produces are not prepared

Hannah Lobato, left, a University of Northern Colroado graduate, helps Karla Conchas Vergara, 7, check her math during class Tuesday morning at East Memorial Elementary School in Greeley. A recent report by the National Council on Teacher Quality gave UNC just two out of four stars in its undergraduate elementary education program. Many people close to UNC are claiming that the report is flawed.

Ashley Green talks to a few students during a lesson Tuesday morning at East Memorial Elementary School in Greeley. Green is a graduate student from University Northern Colorado's and is attending the Education masters program. The National Council on Teacher Quality report did not rate Graduate Programs.

Hannah Lobato helps Christian Avila, 6, with his math problems during class Tuesday morning at East Memorial Elementary School in Greeley. Lobato was among the hundreds of students attracted to the University of Northern Colorado for their Education program.

Kay Byers, representing Lincoln Public Schools, sets up for the next wave of interviews during the University of Northern Colorado's teacher job fair in April of 2013 at Butler–Hancock Sports Pavilion. The fair drew about 800 teacher candidates, many looking to fill various teaching positions both in and out of state.

Shelby Ratzlaff, left, and Shea Dillon work together as they look over the map at the University of Northern Colorado's teacher job fair in April of 2013 at Butler–Hancock Sports Pavilion. The map was necessary to navigate the fair's 135 school districts that attended.

Number of faculty- and student-published materials: 69 peer-reviewed research articles, six books and 168 presentations

Accreditations: Colorado Department of Education, Colorado Department of Higher Education, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, American Psychological Association, National Association of School Psychology

Campuses: Greeley, Loveland, Denver, Colorado Springs and online

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Inconspicuously displayed on one of the bookshelves in Eugene Sheehan’s office is a framed certificate that he says validates what he already knows about the teacher preparation programs at the University of Northern Colorado.

The Excellence in Teacher Education Programs award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities is one of hundreds of awards UNC has received in its more than 100-year history.

However, a recent report by the National Council on Teacher Quality gave the college just two out of four stars in its undergraduate elementary education program and no stars in its secondary education program. It did not rank the school’s graduate programs.

Those close to UNC, whether it be former students, K-12 school district administrators or UNC personnel, don’t agree. They say the report is flawed and people should look at the whole picture, not just a snapshot taken by a few people sitting in an office thousands of miles away.

“I try to avoid the NCTQ report,” said Sheehan, who is the dean of education at UNC. “It’s just a diversion. I have a job to prepare educators. I am not accountable to NCTQ. I am accountable to the people who pay the bills — the state of Colorado. We’re going to meet (the taxpayers’) standards before we meet the standards of an elitist, self-appointed, self-anointed organization in D.C.”

According to its website, the NCTQ was founded in 2000 to provide an “alternative national voice to existing teacher organizations and to build the case for a comprehensive reform agenda that would challenge the current structure and regulation of the profession.”

Sheehan said the group has been putting out this report for several years, but it never gained any attention until this year when it teamed up with U.S. News & World Report.

Coincidentally, in January, U.S. News & World Report ranked UNC’s online education program No. 9 overall out of 208 programs nationwide and No. 1 in student engagement and accreditation.

It’s not NCTQ’s criteria that is flawed but the methodology they use to gather the data and the factual errors it produced, Sheehan said, pointing to things such as inaccurate program requirements.

According to Sheehan, NCTQ submitted an open records request for a lengthy list of syllabi — or course descriptions — for all aspects of the program. When UNC submitted a nearly $3,000 bill for the research required to pull it all together, the school and the organization argued back and forth over the price until nothing was ever submitted.

“We are the aircraft carrier of teacher prep programs,” Sheehan said. “This isn’t (a small program). The number of people it was going to take to pull it all together was going to take time and resources. We ended up submitting nothing. So honestly, I don’t know what they reviewed. I’m not sure how they did that. They even listed us as non-cooperating.”

Kate Walsh, president of the NCTQ, said in a telephone interview that UNC’s charges were enormous and the bill claimed more time than it should have.

“We are a nonprofit,” she said. “We reviewed 1,100 institutions. If each one sent us a bill for $3,000, how would you expect us to manage that?”

Walsh said the average school billed less than $300 for its time, while the larger institutions pushed the limits of what NCTQ could pay.

Walsh said NCTQ eventually used the information UNC posted online from its most recent accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

“If they pulled it off our website, it was outdated and incomplete,” Sheehan said.

The last NCATE evaluation was in 2011.

UNC has a long and storied history of training Colorado’s teachers.

UNC opened in 1889 as the State Normal School and was created to train teachers. The name has changed four times since then, but it still has the same main purpose. When people think UNC, they think education.

“There was no other option for me,” said Hannah Lobato, who will begin her second year teaching kindergarten at East Memorial Elementary School this fall. “UNC is the only college I considered. It’s all I ever heard about, and all I ever heard was how it was the greatest place to go.”

Lobato, 23, was one of the more than 600 education students who graduate every year in one of 43 programs across four Colorado locations.

“I was 18 years old when I chose it. I was still confident at 22 when I graduated that I made the right choice,” Lobato said.

In fact, the school’s reputation is what led the state legislature to designate it “the primary institution for undergraduate and graduate teacher education in the state of Colorado.” And, in 2009, the Legislature located the Education Innovation Institute at UNC.

“We are just huge here,” Sheehan said. “We are one of the biggest public institutions that prepares teachers in the region.”

The college employs more than 100 full-time faculty and administrators, along with three-dozen support positions, and currently, more than 4,000 students are seeking degrees in an education-related field with the average grade point average above a 3.0, most above 3.5, Sheehan said.

“Our teacher candidates, on average, have higher GPAs in their content area than their non-teacher peers,” he said.

Historically, more than 30 percent of all teachers who win the Colorado Department of Education’s Teacher of the Year award graduated from UNC.

UNC is accredited by a variety of organizations that Sheehan said spend weeks on advance research and then several days on campus with groups of six to 10 people talking to faculty, students and others about the program. The main accrediting organization for the teacher preparation programs is the NCATE, which reviews the college every seven years.

“They go through your books like nobody’s business,” he said. “They meet with students, faculty, teachers; they go to the schools and see the candidates in the classrooms.”

NCATE chose UNC’s educational technology program as a national model, and its most recent accreditation in 2011 said the college has no weaknesses.

But that assessment doesn’t make Sheehan entirely happy, either. He said there is still more the college can do to improve.

“NCATE doesn’t give you three stars or four stars. You are either doing your job or not. You either have weaknesses or you don’t. But even though NCATE says we have no weaknesses, we all know we can always do better,” he said. “I am proud. It is clear we have one of the best colleges of education in the country with a long history of preparing the greatest teachers. Could we do this better? Yes, of course. Every company can put out a better product. But I stand behind what we do, and I’m proud of what we do.”

I try to avoid the NCTQ report. It’s just a diversion. I have a job to prepare educators. I am not accountable to NCTQ. I am accountable to the people who pay the bills — the state of Colorado. We’re going to meet (the taxpayers’) standards before we meet the standards of an elitist, self-appointed, self-anointed organization in D.C. — Eugene Sheehan, dean of education at the UNC